I know there's at least a few of us on the forums that are Strava users and I personally find it a good way to check out what other riders are up to. I also notice that to join in Strava events/competitions you need to be a member of a club. So I've decided to set up an ACF Club.

So if you're already a Strava user then just go to the ACF Club page and join. The passcode is stravabna.

For those of you who aren't users and may not know much about Strava it's essentially a place where you can upload rides from your GPS device (whether that be Garmin, Android or iPhone) and share them with others. It has a couple of cool features like it automatically detects climbs and allows the creation of segments which tell provide information like distance, elevation gain, average gradient, a climb category rating and allows you to compare your past performances over the segment as well as see the best times of others. You can also check out other climbs to see how your local one compare to say those in the 2011 Tour de France.

Another feature I like is it let's you set hidden zones so if you want you can hide the start and end of your ride and share your ride without showing your address to the world.

There are a couple of plans to choose from. There is a free one that allows you to upload 5 rides per month or the paid one for unlimited rides (currently US$6 per month or US$59 per year) as well as options like a Garmin Edge 500 with a one year subscription for US$249 (don't know about postage costs). They also do promotional codes so if you're aware of one it may be worth putting in this thread. An example is girodilento11 currently works for 3 months free full membership.

edit: it would also be good to mention any events you think others might be interested in. The main one is KOM Challenge. Sign up and let's see how quickly we can climb the clubs leaderboard.

Last edited by sblack on Fri Jul 29, 2011 10:44 am, edited 1 time in total.

One of the best things about bicycle commuting is that it can mitigate the displeasure of having to go to work. - BikeSnobNYCCycling is sometimes like bobbing for apples in a bucket full of dicks. - SydGuy

joined ACF... don't really put much stuff on strava, even though i have a 3 month 'trial membership thingo , it is interesting to compare yourself to others (can estimate your power output roughly as well which is cool) .

Thanks sblack for mailing me and setting this up. In our modern world there are a multitude of opportunities, if you feel that BNA or the BNA forums & members can benefit I am always happy to hear and discuss as it isn't possible to know everything and to do everything - just contact me

For those of you who'd rather not pay for membership (to get around the 5 uploads per month limit), Strava have announced some changes. Of course, this happened the day after I paid for membership Oh well. Still, I really like the leaderboard stuff and the unofficial time trial/competitiveness stuff. And it seems paid plans will get some extra stuff as a result of this change anyway.

DaveOz, this is all I can find. Maybe the new improved Strava will have a leaderboard-like dashboard thing for the club page.

Max

One of the best things about bicycle commuting is that it can mitigate the displeasure of having to go to work. - BikeSnobNYCCycling is sometimes like bobbing for apples in a bucket full of dicks. - SydGuy

norbs wrote:Also, what your name is on Strava. I have people following me I don't know who they are.

Max Lian. Imaginative, I know

Max

One of the best things about bicycle commuting is that it can mitigate the displeasure of having to go to work. - BikeSnobNYCCycling is sometimes like bobbing for apples in a bucket full of dicks. - SydGuy

norbs wrote:If people are looking at buying membership, maybe send one of the people who are already members your email address so they can benefit from a few free months.

Guys like Baldy, SBlack etc etc oh, and me.

Also, what your name is on Strava. I have people following me I don't know who they are.

I am Todd Norbury for those interested.

I noticed you have a segment on Jindy Andy lane, and you are beating me

I just created one on Albatross Rd and your beating me there too

I also thought hard about my name for Strava, its Greg Lewis

Is the other guy on the Albatross Road one your mate? Richard O'Connel.What about Nowra Hill (East)? You should have ridden that by now. I notice you are a full 100kms in front of me. Damn you man, slow down.

norbs wrote:I am in and am aiming at getting the Bacon coloured Jersey for slow climbing.

Better be careful not to improve much, what was it? 2 seconds on the one climb that we've both done?

AUbicycles wrote:Thanks sblack for mailing me and setting this up.

My pleasure. It's pretty cool to go to the club page now and see the rides people have been doing. To me it adds a little something to the community aspect of the forums. Along the lines of the Bike Gallery, Fit Gits, Black Cats, 6k and 10k clubs, it brings us together as riders and we can share in moments like Joel holding the KOM for Mt Coot-tha Front temporarily, Baldy adding another KOM to his Tasmanian Tittles or Will setting a couple of PBs over in Perth just as if it was one of my neighbours who'd done it on a local ride. All I have to do now is match forum and strava names, some are nice and easy, others are not so obvious, like I believe lethoso is Joel?

Max wrote:For those of you who'd rather not pay for membership (to get around the 5 uploads per month limit), Strava have announced some changes. Of course, this happened the day after I paid for membership Oh well. Still, I really like the leaderboard stuff and the unofficial time trial/competitiveness stuff. And it seems paid plans will get some extra stuff as a result of this change anyway.

DaveOz, this is all I can find. Maybe the new improved Strava will have a leaderboard-like dashboard thing for the club page.

Max

That's some good news, unlimitted uploads to all members can only help them grow. Pretty interested to see what's in stall for paid members too. As for the summary page I think the best way to get a leaderboard happening is with an event. The ability to set up events is not there at the moment but I've emailed them to ask to setup an ACF All Time KOM event which will act as an all time leaderboard. Looking at the Studio Velo KOM Challenge (for all Strava Users) you would then be able to select a month or year to get results for the chosen time period.

Aushiker wrote:Might be a good reason to kill off the BikJournal Club at the end of the year as looks like it has more features etc.

While I'm definately a fan of Strava and would personally prefer things like Fit Gits to be run through it it's worth noting that it really caters to GPS users rather than other cycle computers. While there is a manual ride entry feature it is limited (only date, start/finish time and distance I believe) so any rides without a GPS can't have any climb data added. Not really an issue for Fit Gits I guess though since it's only distance that's tracked for it anyway but still something to be aware of if people are chosing to swap from bikejournal.

I see norbs got in about the names while I was typing up my post.

Max wrote:

norbs wrote:Also, what your name is on Strava. I have people following me I don't know who they are.

norbs wrote:Is the other guy on the Albatross Road one your mate? Richard O'Connel.What about Nowra Hill (East)? You should have ridden that by now. I notice you are a full 100kms in front of me. Damn you man, slow down.

No idea who that is. I don't normally ride up BTU rd in the mornings. Looks like I will have to now.

And don't forget the 29kms I did today Having tomorrow off so you can catch me.

norbs wrote:Is the other guy on the Albatross Road one your mate? Richard O'Connel.What about Nowra Hill (East)? You should have ridden that by now. I notice you are a full 100kms in front of me. Damn you man, slow down.

No idea who that is. I don't normally ride up BTU rd in the mornings. Looks like I will have to now.

And don't forget the 29kms I did today Having tomorrow off so you can catch me.